Well, this is either incredibly sad or utterly hilarious. Apple will stop selling the Mac Pro in Europe on 1 March... Because it doesn't comply with "new" European regulations that will come into effect that day. I say "new" between quotation marks because said regulation was announced four years ago. The regulation deals with increased protection requirements concerning electrical ports and fan guards. "The new requirements necessitate fan guards and some increased protection on the ports on the electrical system," explained Apple, "Because Mac Pro is not compliant with the regulations, we do want to meet that regulation and therefore not offer Mac Pro beyond 1 March." So, a standards body is faster at updating its standards than Apple is at updating its Mac Pro. It illustrates just how much Apple cares about pro users. The last significant update to the Mac Pro occurred in 2010, but Tim Cook did promise an update to the product later in 2013.

U.S companies seem to think that the world is their backyard and they have the right to dump their unsafe shit that doesn't pass U.S regulations everywhere else.

It is EU regulations, not US ones in question. Not sure if you miss typed that or not, because we do push other crap like GMO food that is not up to EU safety standards. In the case of these computers though, I think the EU may be over nerfing.

Once you get past the power supply everything is a safe 12 volts. What exactly is the EU trying to protect you from on the ports? What exactly is the nature of the change needed for the ports to meet EU standards?

I had a G5 (so I don't know how different the airflow is on the intel Mac Pros, but I thought it was similar) and I did not think the fans were a safety issue on that model. By the book you were not supposed to have it powered up with the access panel off and I believe they had a sensor to stop the fans when the inner airflow panel was open.

It makes me wonder what the underside of a EU approved lawnmower looks like if they are putting guards on parts that are already covered by access panels. It seems like the EU would want to protect the people who disregard the manual and try to change blades with it running.

It does go both ways though....
Suzuki recently pulled out of the US auto-market citing that it is to costly to meet us safety/emissions standards as one of the reason for leaving. I was kind of surprised with that, because I really like my Kizashi and though they had something that blended the style and quality of a VW fused with a Honda and then combined it with the all wheel drive of a Subaru.

"At issue are the large fans within the Mac Pro. Since they are unprotected, it would be possible to touch the fan blades," MacWorld reports Apple as saying.

Is it true you can touch fan blades? That does look like a major oversight. Even if this wasn't in the standard any quality equipment should come with a fan hidden behind a guard - no excuse for Apple. True, I wouldn't put my fingers in the fan, but a toddler could very much try it.

"According to Apple, the new requirements necessitate fan guards and some increased protection on the ports on the electrical system."

Not sure about Apple but some time ago I tried to get Sony to fix an electrical leak from the power supply to the metal casing of the laptop (which was noticeable at 110V~ and rather unpleasant at 240V~). Their response was that this amount of leakage is normal and meets all legal requirements. So, I am not going to complain that EU is making regulations tougher.

Once you get past the power supply everything is a safe 12 volts. What exactly is the EU trying to protect you from on the ports? What exactly is the nature of the change needed for the ports to meet EU standards?